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EU introduces β¬3 customs charge on small parcels to curb cheap Chinese imports
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2026
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on the principle that's fine, but it also means that DHL will add ~~6.50β¬~~ 7.50β¬ fees on top of that here in germany, which you can only pay in cash upon delivery, and they don't even carry change.
edit: it's 7.50
I'm not in Germany but DHL has a website where I can pay any fees. They usually text me a link when I have a package on the way.
It's kinda bullshit that I had to pay a $17 service fee when the import fees were only $3, but at least they accepted digital payment...
Germany is its own beast. For the longest time i couldn't pay electronically at the post office because they only accepted EC, and no Visa/Mastercard/Apple Pay. with my french bank i don't have that, so i had to bring cash always.
this is the kind of e-mail i get when i have a delivery with customs fee:
edit: and the most funny thing was that the amount in the e-mail wasn't even correct, so now i have my vat of coins i collect in a drawer to adjust to the final surprise amount that needs to be paid :>
That's so annoying. Is this the peak of German efficiency and bureaucracy?
no no they can do much worse xD
They recently added the ability to pay with an EC card upon delivery.
Not true. Parcels can be delievered to DHL shop where you can pay with several methods (I already did so). Yet the fee is indeed annoying when comparing with the 3 β¬ cause
how is what i said not true? i am telling what happens when it's delivered to my door. i work from home and i'm always there, delivering to a shop is even worse
As long as it helps stopping people from buying this Chinese stuff, Iβm fine with it! Buy local, buy ecological, buy less but valuable and durable products.
Maybe it's different in Europe, but in the US, my options are generally buy a Chinese-made product close to directly from the manufacturer via AliExpress or what have you or buy (often the same exact) a Chinese-made product through an American named big box store for 10x or even 25x the price.
For online stores thatβs true, but the retailer is responsible for anything they sell in the US. There will still be some of that same junk, but a lot of those electronics are filtered out from retail because they arenβt certified.
Take a look at what kind of power strips are available online vs in a hardware store.
Half the shit on ebay gets dropshipped from amazon. Literally just shows up in amazon packages, from amazon trucks. Occasional a doordasher brings something from walmart. No disclosure on the ebay stores whatsoever that that's what they're doing.
And half the shit on amazon is probably dropshipped from AliExpress. And half the shit on AliExpress is probably dropshipped from some more obscure Chinese ecommerce site.
I'm beginning to think it's just dropshipping all the way down...
Since Trump is in power, I do not particularly care about consumers suffering in the USA.
you completely missed the point they were making. It has absolutely nothing to do with consumers suffering in the US.
Awesome, show me a local manufacturer who deals with speciality electronics and sensors and does them β¬3-4 apiece.
Not sure about manufacturers but DigiKey, Mouser, Jameco, MicroCenter, and McMaster-Carr are all decent options.
Most will tell you where something is manufactured. Some stuff is from China but they also have stuff from Taiwan, generally better quality in my experience. Some things you can find manufactured in EU or other western countries, but fabs don't exist everywhere for everything.
But at the very least these places are importing items in large quantities so it's still more eco-friendly than having individual nickle-dime stuff flown over entire oceans and continents.
Those are stores. Who also order the components from China, then add surcharges for having them locally available.
Most components on all listed sites will also be 2-3x more expensive than if ordered from manufacturer directly (unless mfg lists them on the site), at which point "buy European" simply becomes "pay 2-3x to a European company for doing what you could be doing on your own".
I mean most passive components will still run you about ten cents per. It's not like that's exorbitant. If you need to order a thousand of them you'll get a bulk discount.
My point was on the environmental aspect. These stores can import them in larger quantities, so it's less fuel consumption in transport than ordering smaller quantities that ship direct from China
Sure, for small components it's logical to go to them - or even to local electronics repair shops as they'll most likely have those parts.
But even Mouser, etc. rarely have the boards I need. For example right now I have a bit of development to do on e-ink integrated platforms. I have two product options: the Lilygo T5S3 Pro, or the M5Stack PaperS3. Mouser etc. will have these on backorder, 2-3 week lead time, and 50-70% more expensive than ordering from the mfg. Meanwhile I can deal with the mfg. and shipping with a much shorter lead time (often as little as 5 days!).
I mean if you can backtrace the specific product you need to the manufacturer and order directly from them, sure that makes sense. At least if you find the product on Mouser, you can be assured of its quality/safety (unless the manufacturer saves its duds for small orders)
What isn't wise would be browsing the Chinese e-commerce sites for the thing you need and then buying the cheapest one. It's kind of a gamble whether it works at all, or whether it burns your house down.
Did you ever wonder why these Chinese products are so cheap, and why they are not produced in Europe anymore? I think you should read up on this! First, the Chinese keep to Yuan artificially at a very low level. This is already unfair, and continues to boost their economy. Second, they subsidize most companies that export into other countries, to aggressively gain market share. Their workers work under poor conditions, and for that reason are cheap Labor (as you probably know, some are even slaves;-). So while you are happy to save a couple of bucks, people in the EU are loosing jobs and factories are closing down. I saw this happening with Japanese cars and electronics in the 70s and 80s. Whole industries disappeared.
95% of the product palette I use has literally no European alternative. Kinda hard to buy something that doesn't exist.
Don't worry, a local Corp will import it and sell it to you for 10x the price!
The Japanese cars, motorcycles and electronics were also miles better than what we produced here in the seventies. If anything it is an example that nothing is unbeatable forever. The Japanese didn't kill the automotive industry in Europe. European cars and motorcycles instead got better and more desirable from the 80s on. And the Japanese electronics didn't take over. Instead, European companies first upped their game as well, and later outsourced production to Eastern countries like China. Now that outsourcing is backfiring and European companies are once again challenged.
Why?
For example, i can order 25 $ Handguards for my bike, that are 100% identical to the original part, which costs 120 β¬
I'm with you on certain things, but some companies just make a lot of money with overprizing
Am I missing something? The original costs 125 (why do you mention $, in the EU we pay in β¬??). Now you buy them for 25+3+6, so you still make a profit of 91? This new tax is not to prohibit you from buying Chinese. Itβs intended to stop the flow of cheap products coming in, which is eroding European industry at a rapid pace. The choice is yours, do you want to protect our EU industry, or do you want to surrender all jobs China?
provided it's something you can even buy here.
You are right, it is extremely hard nowadays to buy anything that has not been produced in China, or that does not contain at least one component from China. This should worry all of us, since it means that all production has moved to China, and factories in European Union are being closed down, and people lose their jobs because of this. This fee can only be the first step to rescue European production.
Even the European car factories and brands are now mostly Chinese owned.